NATIONAL NEWS NEW VISION, Tuesday, April 28, 2015 3

By Taddeo Bwambale

A new report has named Uganda as one of the two African countries hosting thousands of Ethiopians, Eritreans and Sudanese asylum seekers secretly repatriated by Israel.

A 42-page report titled: Where there is No Free Will, Israel’s ‘Voluntary Return’ Procedure for Asylum-Seekers thousands of asylum seekers have been forced to leave Israel to a third country since March 2013, in violation of international law on voluntary repatriation.

Some asylum seekers are sent back to their countries of origin, others with no travel documents or who are unwilling to return to their countries are sent to Uganda and Rwanda. At least 1,205 asylum seekers have been sent to Uganda and Rwanda out of the 9,026 African asylum seekers, who have been made to leave Israel in the past two years.

The report says the asylum seekers deported to Rwanda sneak into Uganda and head to other countries, including Europe. The report notes that many asylum seekers deported to Uganda or Rwanda head to Europe through South Sudan, Sudan and Libya.

The report quotes one asylum seeker who was deported to Rwanda, but crossed into Uganda with a smuggler and then headed to Khartoum through South Sudan. While in Uganda, they were arrested and made to pay $1,200 before being freed.

The report was published by two non-profi t Israeli organisations; Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and Aid Organisation for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, with the sponsorship of the Foundation for Migration, Population and Environment also based in Israel.

Uganda and Rwanda government offi cials have persistently dismissed the reports that there exist any agreement with Israel over the asylum seekers.

No legal statusThe asylum seekers are sent to Uganda and Rwanda with Israeli travel documents valid for only two days, after which their legal status in the recipient country is not guaranteed.

“The Israeli travel documents are taken from deported asylum seekers as soon as they arrive at Kigali, Rwanda or Entebbe, Uganda by local representatives co-ordinated by the Israeli Immigration Authority,” the report says.

The report states that fees for a two nights’ stay at a local hotel in Uganda are paid by Israel. Thereafter, the asylum seekers are on their own, with no identifi cation documents

Some asylum seekers have been

secretly repatriated to Uganda.

Is the Government aware?

SECRET REPATRIATION

and no possibility of proving where they have come from.

The report says that some deportees to Uganda are accommodated at a hotel in Buziga, a Kampala suburb.

The asylum seekers set to fl y to Uganda receive a letter promising them an entry permit. Upon arrival in Uganda, they are asked to hand in their transit papers and no other documents are given to them.

Two of the asylum seekers interviewed claimed that they were arrested upon arrival in Uganda.

While in Uganda they fi nd it diffi cult to apply for a three-month residency permit, due to lack of entry permits. None of those who were interviewed had managed to complete the process, although some have been in the country for about a year.

The report states that Israeli authorities use ‘a myriad of methods to coerce asylum seekers to leave Israel, including prolonged imprisonment in Saharonim Prison, detention in the Holot detention facility, withholding of status, withholding of work permits, the requirement to frequently renew “conditional release” permits, as well as degrading and humiliating treatment at the hands of the authorities.’

The repatriation is handled by the ‘Voluntary Returns’ Unit responsible for, among other things, arranging fl ights and producing transit papers for asylum seekers. Each deportee receives a travel document and a departure bonus of $3,500 at the airport.

Government speaks outThe state minister for foreign affairs, Okello Oryem, insisted that there was no formal agreement between Uganda and Israel on the repatriation of the asylum seekers.

“I have talked to the minister of Internal Affairs and my permanent secretary and there is no such arrangement, unless it is being done illegally,” the minister told New Vision yesterday.

He revealed that he had asked the internal affairs ministry to investigate the line that some offi cials in the ministry were behind the deal.

Pamela Ankunda, the spokesperson of the internal affairs ministry, said reports on repatriation of refugees from Israel to Uganda were false. She referred our reporter to the permanent secretary of foreign affairs ministry, James Mugume.

Mugume said: “Neither the minister nor myself has an idea about it. We do not have

any arrangement for receiving refugees from Israel.”

Apollo Kazungu, the commissioner

for refugees in the Offi ce of the Prime Minister, maintained that Uganda was neither receiving nor processing documents for refugees from

Israel.“The

Government’s position on this matter

remains as before: we are not receiving anybody of that

kind,” he stated.

Israel expels Sudanese to Uganda

Israeli authorities use

inhumane methods including

degrading and humiliating

treatment

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ASYLUM SEEKERS COERCED

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The state minister for

foreign affairs, Okello

Oryem, said the

Government was not

aware of

the arrangement